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THE  REFLECTION  OF  POSITIVISM 
IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE  TO  1880 


THE  POSITIVISM  OF  FREDERIC  HARRISON 


BY 

GARRETA  HELEN  BUSEY 

A.B.,  Wellesley  College,  191 5 

A.M.,  University  of  Illinois,  1922 

W         IRY  OF  TKIF 

FEB  2  3  1926 

m  ^  OF  ILLSKOIS 

AN  ABSTRACT  OF  A  THESIS 

SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY  IN 

ENGLISH  IN  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS,  1924 


URBANA,  ILLINOIS 


THE  REFLECTION  OF  POSTIVISM  IN  ENGLAND 
THE  UNIVERSITIES 

The  Positivist  philosophy  had  its  intellectual  and  its  emo- 
tional sides.  The  one,  in  rejecting  speculation  concerning  the  nature 
of  reality,  turned  to  the  natural  sciences  as  containing  all  that 
man  could  certainly  know,  while  the  other  attempted  to  establish 
a  religion — the  worship  of  Humanity — on  a  Positive  basis.  Con- 
ditions in  France  induced  a  more  ready  assimilation  of  the  former 
phase  into  her  literature,  so  that  Comte's  influence  became  a  force 
to  strengthen  naturalistic  tendencies  fostered  by  the  general 
growth  of  interest  in  scientific  experiment. 

The  spirit  of  science  was  not  the  possession  of  France  alone, 
however.  In  the  heart  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  became  a  cen- 
tral current  throughout  the  whole  of  the  western  world,  imparting, 
in  its  larger  and  finer  aspects,  openness  of  vision,  the  disposition 
to  face  and  to  portray  the  things  that  are,  and  the  power  to  dispel 
baseless  fears,  as  well  as  some  less  fortunate  tendencies.  In  Eng- 
land it  found  a  place,  an  increasing  place  as  the  century  went  on, 
so  that  the  melancholy  of  doubt  crept  into  her  poetry,  and  natural- 
ism was  by  no  means  absent. 

But  the  spirit  of  science  was  met  and  modified  by  the  religious 
temper  of  the  English  race,  which  waxed  especially  strong  in  the 
Victorian  age,  as  if  to  offset  the  inroads  of  skepticism. 

"The  interests  that  controlled  English  thought  between  1830 
and  1870  were  chiefly  religious,"  according  to  Miss  Scudder; 
"to  run  over  the  tables  of  contents  in  the  leading  magazines  during 
these  years,  and  compute  a  proportion  of  subjects,  would  convince 
any  one  that  religious  speculation  dominated  all  other  questions 
in  the  mind  of  the  reading  public.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
period,  a  yearning  for  the  religious  temper  met  a  profound  dis- 
content with  religious  formulae.  The  most  life  communicating 
men  of  the  day,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Cardinal  Newman,  Spencer, 
Harrison,  Maurice,  were  all  in  one  way  or  another  of  the  religious 
type.  The  iconoclastic  instinct,  in  matters  spiritual,  had  ceased 
to  give  pleasure,  and  almost  every  leader  of  skeptical  thought  was 
in  his  own  way  making  efforts  toward   reconstruction."1 

1Scudder,  Vida.     Social  Ideals  in  English  Letters.     1 80-1 81. 

[3] 


y^\ 


Auguste  Comte,  in  France,  had  attempted  this  reconstruction 
in  his  formulation  of  the  Positivist  Religion  of  Humanity.  His 
was  the  same  spirit  as  that  in  England  which,  meeting  and  accept- 
ing the  discoveries  of  science,  endeavored  to  save,  in  the  face  of 
them,  certain  feelings  and  ideals  hitherto  fostered  by  religion; 
and,  for  this  reason,  the  group  which  accepted,  as  a  whole  or  in 
part,  the  system  of  Comte,  was  not  a  negligible  one. 

That  the  more  emotional  half  of  the  Positivist  system  received 
greater  emphasis  in  England  than  it  had  in  France,  may  be,  to 
some  extent,  due  to  a  difference  in  the  national  characteristics  of 
the  two  countries.  The  cult  of  Humanity  as  a  religion  appealed 
to  the  English  with  a  much  greater  force  than  to  the  French. 
Not  that  the  Frenchman  is  lacking  in  regard  for  his  fellowmen. 
But  he  is  much  readier  to  accord  them  respect  and  justice  than 
love,  and  his  social  instinct,  which  is  perhaps  more  highly  developed 
than  is  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  is  founded  upon  this  attitude.2 
The  Englishman,  when  he  becomes  imbued  with  social  sentiment, 
must  find  his  sanction  for  it  in  an  intimate  personal  emotion,  in  the 
love  and  worship  of  a  being  greater  than  himself,  of  God  or  Hu- 
manity. "The  great  distinction  between  us,"  writes  Mr.  Brownell, 
"the  chief  characteristic  which  in  this  sphere  sets  off  the  Frenchman 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  from  the  Spaniard  also,  and  the  Italian, 
over  whom  he  triumphs  morally,  perhaps  is  his  irreligiousness."3 

The  group  of  Englishmen  who  took  over  Comte's  religion 
of  Humanity  in  its  entirety  was,  however,  small.  Among  men  and 
women  of  letters,  none  of  importance,  with  the  exception  of  Fred- 
eric Harrison,  actually  belonged  to  the  Church  of  Humanity  and 
supported  it  whole-heartedly.  But  there  were  many  unofficial 
followers  among  literary  people.  The  idea  of  humanity  was  pretty 
generally  accompanied  by  a  religious  feeling,  with  the  result  that 
English  Positivists  were  led  to  treat  of  the  higher  posibilities  of 
mankind,  even  where  a  recognition  of  man's  relation  to  the  rest  of 
the  physical  universe  and  his  dependence  upon  determined  forces 
was  most  evident. 

The  discussion  of  the  works  of  Comte  went  on  in  a  variety  of 
spheres.  It  was  active  in  the  universities,  especially  Oxford,  in 
such  informal  literary  groups  as  that  around  G.  H.  Lewes  and 
George  Eliot,  and  in  the  offices  of  periodicals  as  centers  of  asso- 
ciation. 

2Brownell,  W.  C.    French  Traits.    30-31. 
zIbid.    73. 

[4] 


Not  the  least  potent  influence  upon  such  discussion  was,  as 
has  been  noted  before,  that  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  in  the  uni- 
versities, where  his  philosophical  works  were  studied,  it  was  very 
strong.  John  Morley  wrote  of  him  at  the  time  of  his  death:  "The 
most  eminent  of  those  who  are  fast  becoming  the  front  line,  as 
death  mows  down  the  veterans,  all  bear  traces  of  his  influence, 
whether  they  are  avowed  disciples  or  avowed  opponents.  If  they 
did  not  accept  his  method  of  thinking,  at  least  he  determined  the 
questions  which  they  should  think  about.  For  twenty  years  no 
one  at  all  open  to  serious  impressions  has  left  Oxford  without 
having  undergone  the  influence  of  Mr.  Mill's  teaching,  though  it 
would  be  too  much  to  say  that  in  that  gray  temple  where  they  are 
ever  burnishing  new  idols,  his  throne  is  still  unshaken."4 

The  members  of  the  younger  group  of  English  Positivists 
seem  to  have  obtained  their  first  contact  with  the  works  of  Comte 
at  the  universities.  Between  the  years  1848  and  1859,  J.  Cotter 
Morison,  Frederic  Harrison,  and  John  Morley  were  students  at 
Oxford,  while  Leslie  Stephen  was  at  Cambridge.  After  leaving  the 
universities,  these  men  went  to  London,  where  they  came  in  con- 
tact with  those  groups  of  Positivists  centered  about  George  Eliot 
and  John  Stuart  Mill. 

A  very  interesting  figure  in  connection  with  the  Oxford  of 
that  day  was  Richard  Congreve,  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Arnold,  and  tutor 
at  the  University  from  1848  to  1854.  Just  as  Jonn  Stuart  Mill  is 
representative  of  the  clear,  critical  type  of  mind  which  selected 
the  best  of  the  philosophical  elements  in  the  system  of  Comte, 
so  Richard  Congreve,  although  clear-thinking  at  first,  became  more 
and  more  absorbed  in  the  mystical  side  of  the  doctrine  until  he 
reached  a  kind  of  fanaticism.  Frederic  Harrison  tells  us  that  he 
was  not  a  scholar,  but  that  he  had  a  wide  systematic  grasp  of 
history,  and  that  "his  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  general  culture, 
of  politics,  was  masculine  and  broad."  His  strong,  ambitious, 
but  rather  arrogant  nature  could  not  but  impress  younger  men," 
but  he  did  not  inspire  hero-worship.  At  Oxford,  Harrison  tells 
us,  "he  worked  hard,  and  was  genial  and  good-natured.  What  a 
transformation  have  I  witnessed  in  forty  years  to  the  arrogant 
egotist,  the  fierce  intriguer,  and  the  pitiless  misanthropist  that 
ambition,  vanity,  and  fanaticism  have  made  the  Dr.  Congreve 
of  1892 — the   would-be  High   Priest  of  Humanity — the   restless 

4Morley,  John.    The  Death  of  Mr.  Mill.    Critical  Miscellanies.    Ill,  39. 

[5] 


dreamer  after  a  sort  of  back-parlour  Popedom.  I  could  not  believe 
that  human  nature  could  undergo  such  a  transformation  in  the 
same  man,  if  I  had  not  been  a  close  witness  of  the  whole  process."5 
In  1855  Congreve  resigned  his  fellowship  at  Oxford  in  order  to 
devote  himself  to  the  spread  of  the  teachings  of  Positivism,  taking  a 
leading  part  in  the  work  carried  on  in  Chapel  Street.  Later  he 
refused  to  accept  the  authority  of  Pierre  Lafitte,  Comte's  suc- 
cessor, causing  a  split  in  the  ranks  of  the  Positivists.6  That 
Frederic  Harrison  was  a  leader  of  the  opposite  party  may  have 
something  to  do  with  his  estimate  of  the  later  Congreve. 

The  religion  of  Frederic  Harrison's  boyhood  was  orthodox 
Anglicanism,  from  which  he  drew  away  gradually  into  Positivism. 
"It  happens  to  have  been  my  lot,"  he  says,  "to  have  been  born 
and  bred  in  such  a  church"  (the  Anglican  communion),  "to  have 
been  saturated  as  a  student  with  orthodox  theology,  to  have  had 
till  full  manhood  a  heartwhole  attachment  to  the  sacerdotal 
ritual  and  a  reasoned  faith  in  the  Christian  creeds;  and  then, 
by  very  gradual  and  regular  transitions,  to  have  settled  down 
in  middle  age  into  that  Positive  Religion — wherein  I  find,  as 
my  life  closes  round  me  in  old  age,  such  perfect  peace,  such  joy- 
ful anticipations  of  a  life  to  come."7  His  was  a  family  of  High 
Church  leanings;  and  in  his  youth  he  had  great  faith  in  prayer — 
even  for  the  most  trivial  personal  things.  Later  he  came  to  look 
back  at  this  as  relaxing  to  morality  and  degrading.  "The  essen- 
tially human  and  special  evil,"  he  says,  "caused  by  our  bad  acts, 
is  ignored  when  it  becomes  a  personal  matter  between  self  and 
God."  Nor  did  he  ever  have  a  very  lively  interest  in  the  future 
life.8 

At  Oxford  began  his  transition  from  orthodoxy,  although 
his  training  there  was  in  accordance  with  the  traditional  religion. 
Nevertheless,  "nearly  all  the  men  with  whom  I  have  worked  as 
colleagues  in  the  Positive  Propaganda,"  he  tells  us,  "had  an  ortho- 
dox training  in  the  universities,  and  many  were  born  and,  bred  in 
clerical  or  in  official  homes.  Along  with  these,  most  of  them 
now  no  more,  I  have  passed  through  all  the  typical  phases  of 
religious  thought,  from  effusive  Ritualism  to  Broad  Church,  to 
Latitudinarianism,  Unitarianism,  Theism,  and  finally  to  the  Faith 

5Harrison,  Frederic.    Autobiography.    I,  82-85. 
6Encyclopedia  Brit.    Art.  on  Congreve.    IV,  938. 
7Harrison.    The  Creed  of  a  Layman.    3. 
8Harrison.    Autobiography.    I,  39. 

[6] 


in  Humanity  in  which  I  rest."9  At  the  University  he  came  in  con- 
tact with  Richard  Congreve,  who  must  have  been  studying 
Comte  at  the  time,  although  Harrison  says  that  in  1849  Comte 
was  little  known  in  England  and  that  he  does  not  believe  that 
Congreve  knew  much  about  him  until  later.10 

Oxford  gave  him  his  basis  for  Positivism,  the  philosophy  of 
experience,  obtained  from  Mill's  Logic,11  a  book  which,  along 
with  G.  H.  Lewes,  George  Eliot,  and  Littre,  introduced  him  to 
Comte.12  He  also  read  Harriet  Martineau's  translation  while  at 
College.  "I  carefully  studied  and  was  profoundly  impressed  by 
Comte's  view  of  general  history  and  by  his  original  scheme  of  a 
new  science  of  society.  I  entirely  accepted  both,  but  did  not  apply 
them  to  religion  or  the  organization  of  society.  Of  all  that  I  knew 
nothing;  and  in  fact  it  was  at  that  date  neither  completed  nor 
published."13 

In  1855  Harrison  decided  not  to  take  Holy  Orders,  because 
of  a  strong  feeling  which  he  had  developed  of  antagonism  to  the 
Established  Church  as  a  political  and  social  scandal.  He  was  closely 
associated  with  Dr.  Congreve,  Dr.  Bridges,  Beesly,  the  Lushing- 
tons,  and  other  Oxford  friends,  and  a  frequent  hearer  of  F.  D. 
Maurice,  and  the  men  connected  with  the  Working  Men's  College. 
He  was  also  being  influenced  by  the  opinions  of  "Carlyle,  Kingsley, 
Goldwin  Smith,  Mill,  Bright,  and  the  disestablishment  orators 
and  organs."    He  wrote  to  his  mother  at  this  time: 

"Nor,  lastly,  do  I  find  among  our  clergy  that  clear  con- 
viction, that  true  wisdom,  which  is  needed  in  one  who  assumes 
to  settle  and  explain  religious  questions — to  comfort  our  dis- 
tresses— to   clear  up   our  perplexities.     A  church   must   teach — 

9Harrison.    The  Creed  0/  a  Layman.    3. 

10Harrison  tells  {Autobiography  I,  85-87)  of  the  band  of  "Jumbo"  (which 
was  composed  of  Beesly,  Bridges,  Thorley,  and  himself)  reading  an  article 
by  Brewster  on  Comte  {Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1838),  and  then  announcing 
to  their  colleagues  that  Congreve's  system  of  ideas  was  derived  from  Comte. 
However,  they  did  not  question  him  definitely  on  the  matter,  and  Congreve 
never  once,  during  their  whole  time  at  Oxford,  referred  to  Comte  in  conversa- 
tion with  them.  Harrison  expressly  states  that  none  of  them  became  Con- 
greve's disciples  at  that  time. 

"Harrison.    The  Creed  oj  a  Layman.    21. 

12Ibid.    16. 
Harrison.  Autobiography.    I,  87. 

13Harrison.    The  Creed  oj  a  Layman.    19. 


7] 


bind — regulate.  /  must  find  one  that  will  (Her,  regler,  rallier 
(Auguste  Comte)."14 

It  was  a  period  in  his  life  when  he  was  open  to  many  influences, 
and  was  finding  a  synthesis  for  them  in  Positivism.  He  had  read 
"Dante,  F.  D.  Maurice,  John  Henry  Newman,  Francis  Newman, 
C.  Kingsley,  J.  S.  Mill,  Carlyle,  Comte — Plato,  Aristotle,  and  the 
Bible — with  almost  equal  interest  and  profit."  And  Comte 
seemed  to  explain  them  all.15 

In  this  year  (1855)  Harrison  had  an  interview  with  Comte 
himself  which  he  describes  as  follows: 

"He  asked  me  what  I  knew  of  his  writings.  I  replied,  Miss 
Martineau's  translation,  of  which  I  could  follow  only  the  second 
(historical  and  sociological)  volume,  and  that  I  still  called  myself 
a  Christian.  He  asked  me  what  were  my  studies;  and  finding  that 
I  had  done  almost  nothing  in  science  and  little  in  mathematics, 
he  said  'that  accounted  for  my  mental  condition!'  ....  He 
spoke  entirely  as  a  philosopher — much  as  J.  S.  Mill  would  speak — 
— not  at  all  as  a  priest."16 

This  interview  did  not  make  him  a  Positivist,  but  it  did  set 
him  to  work  upon  the  study  of  science,  and  it  left  him  impressed 
by  the  "extraordinary  clearness  and  organic  order"  of  Comte's 
conception.17 

Upon  Harrison's  return  to  London  after  this  interview  he 
attended  lectures  given  by  the  most  prominent  scientists  of  the 
time.18  Here  also  he  was  sometimes  a  visitor  at  Mill's  (where  he 
met  Grote,  also);19  and  he  met  Lewes  and  George  Eliot  at  the 
house  of  Richard  Congreve.20 

By  1 861  he  was  so  far  a  Positivist,  in  the  religious  sense, 
that,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Bridges'  wife,  he  wrote  to  one  of  her 
friends,  offering  the  Positivist  consolation  of  survival  in  memory: 
"What  her  life  was  before  death,  an  active  life  of  work  in  that 
quiet  village,  such  her  life  will  be  after  death.  I  mean  her  memory, 
and  all  the  nameless  influence  of  her  doings,  feelings,  and  thoughts, 
working  still  around  her,  amongst  those  who  have  known  her,  all 

"Harrison.    Autobiography.    I,  1 46-1 47. 

VoIbid.   I,  97-106. 

™Ibid.    I,  97-99 

17Harrison.    Creed  of  a  Layman.    20. 

™Ibid.    21. 

19Harrison.    Autobiography.    I,  251-255. 

20Harrison.    The  Creed  of  a  Layman.    22. 


kept  alive  tenfold,  a  hundredfold  more  distinctly  and  beautifully, 
and  really,  when  her  grave  is  under  the  shadow  of  the  church  tower 
beside  her  sisters."21 

In  1867  the  Positivist  Society  was  founded  with  Congreve 
as  president.  In  1 878-1 879  Congreve  seceded  from  Lafitte, 
Comte's  successor,  while  Harrison  remained,  and  in  1881  the  New- 
ton Hall  group  of  Positivists  was  formed,  with  Harrison  as  a  leader. 
This  and  the  Positivist  Review,  which  was  founded  in  1893,  were 
still  in  action  as  late  as  191 1. 

Positivism  became  the  guiding  force  of  Harrison's  life,  and 
most  of  his  works  touch  upon  it.  Together  with  Bridges  and 
Beesly,  he  translated  the  Politique  Positive.22  He  also  wrote  a 
large  number  of  articles  explaining  his  views  and  treating  literary 
subjects  from  a  Positivist  point  of  view.  These  were  published 
chiefly  in  The  Fortnightly  Review,  The  Contemporary  Review,  The 
Westminister  Review,  and  The  Nineteenth  Century21  In  1866  was 
published  by  Chapman  and  Hall  Essays  and  Reviews,  articles  by 
Harrison  dealing  with  the  leading  international  questions  from  a 
Positivist  basis.24  His  lectures  on  these  subjects  were  also  numer- 
ous. "If  the  list  of  subjects  treated  seems  to  be  extremely  various, " 
he  says,  "it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  invariably  based  on 
the  collective  synthesis  of  the  Positive  philosophy,  on  the  Calen- 
dar of  Great  Men,  and  on  the  general  doctrines  of  Comte  as  con- 
tained in  his  Polity  and  other  books For  the  twenty-five 

years,  18 80-1 904  inclusive,  I  generally  lectured  on  Sundays  for 
about  two  months  in  each  year,  as  well  as  on  the  special  meetings 
of  the  Positivist  Society."25 

The  Religion  of  Humanity  was  the  expression  of  Harrison's 
deepest  and  sincerest  convictions.  "The  central  idea  of  Positiv- 
ism," he  writes  in  The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense,  "is  simply 
this:  that,  until  our  dominant  convictions  can  be  got  into  one 
plane  with  our  deepest  affections  and  also  our  practical  energies — 
until  our  most  sacred  emotions  have  been  correlated  with  our 
root  beliefs  and  also  our  noblest  ambition — that  is,  until  one  great 
object  is  ever  present  to  intellect,  and  to  heart,  and  to  energy — 

21Harrison.    Autobiography.    I,  212-213. 
22Ibid.    251  ffand28off. 
23 1 bid.    326  and  281. 
"Ibid.    1,358. 
™Ibid.    II,  282-283. 


9l 


all  at  once — human  life  can  never  be  healthy  or  sound."26  Posi- 
tivism is  a  relative  synthesis.  "A  relative  synthesis  admits  that 
absolutely,  in  rerum  natura,  the  Earth  is  an  infinitesimal  bubble, 

and  Man  a  very  feeble,  casual,  and  faulty,  organism But 

relatively — this  Earth  is  to  us  mites  the  true  centre  of  the  World, 
and  Humanity  is  far  the  noblest,  strongest,  most  humane,  most 
permanent  organism  that  we  can  prove  to  inhabit  it."27 

In  his  acceptance  of  the  idea  of  the  Religion  of  Humanity, 
Harrison  was  like  Mill,  but  he  went  far  beyond  the  latter  in  his 
acceptance  of  the  cultus  which  went  with  it,  as  is  shown  by  his 
activity  at  Newton  Hall. 

That  society  was  established  to  serve  the  purpose  of  "school, 
club,  and  chapel — a  place  for  education,  for  political  activity, 
and  for  religious  communion."  Scientific  training  was  emphasized, 
for  it  was  recognized  that  this  was  the  basis  of  the  very  existence 
of  Positivism.28  Harrison  insists  that  there  was  no  ritualism  nor 
sacerdotalism  connected  with  this  establishment,  but  goes  on  to 
describe  the  sacraments  which  were  celebrated  there.  They  were 
nine,  as  was  proposed  by  Comte,  some  of  them  being:  "Presenta- 
tion of  infants,  Confirmation  of  adolescents  (initiation  into  sys- 
tematic education),  Destination  to  a  profession,  Maturity,"  Mar- 
riage, and  Funeral.29  Another  of  the  rites  was  that  of  Commemo- 
ration, which  consisted  of  a  pilgrimage  to  the  home,  or  tomb,  of  one 
of  the  great  men  on  the  Positivist  Calendar.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  was  that  to  Westminister  Abbey,  which  took  place 
on  September  5th,  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Comte.  The 
tombs  of  all  the  great  men  of  the  Calendar  buried  there  were 
visited,  and  later  an  historic  estimate  was  delivered  in  the  Chapter 
House,  the  Dining  Hall,  or  the  Jerusalem  Chamber.30 

Thus  Positivism  was  to  Frederic  Harrison  less  of  a  philosophy 
than  a  religion — a  means  for  inspiring  the  individual  with  an 
emotional  consciousness  of  social  duty.31    And  in  connection  with 


26Harrison.    The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense.  44. 

"Ibid.    60. 

28Harrison.    Autobiography.    II,  270-271. 

™Ibid,   II,  286. 

™Ibid.    II,  288-289. 

31"And  as  to  'religion,'  we  extend  that  most  ancient  and  most  grand  of 
all  names  to  all  belief  in  solid  truths,  whether  physical  or  spiritual,  cosmical 
or  human,  which  inspire  right  action  and  sincere  enthusiasm  for  the  fulfillment 
of  personal  and  social  duty.    As  a  form  of  worship,    Positivism  is  simply  right 


IO 


this  duty,  Newton  Hall  dispensed  education  freely  and  became  a 
center  for  working  men,  endeavoring  to  teach  them  spiritual 
truths  as  well.32  This  brought  Harrison  into  touch  with  the  labor- 
ing classes  and  gave  him  sympathy  with  the  trade  unions  and  the 
leading  French  radicals.33 

The  labor  problem  was  an  insistent  one  in  England  at  that 
time,  so  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  members  of  the  Positivist 
Society  to  give  it  a  great  deal  of  attention.  On  the  whole  the 
solution  arrived  at  is  in  many  respects  strikingly  like  that  of  Car- 
lyle,  especially  in  his  earlier  stages  of  development.  The  difference 
is,  however,  a  fundamental  one,  although  the  likenesses  are  many. 
For  Carlyle  approaches  the  problem  from  a  transcendental  and  a 
moral  standpoint;  Comte  from  an  empirical  and  a  social  one.34 
They  both  believed  in  the  necessity  and  dignity  of  work,  in  the 
impossibility  of  adequately  rewarding  it  by  means  of  money, 
and  in  the  idea  of  "Industrial  Chivalry,"  (an  expression  taken  out 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  of  which  they  were  both  admirers).35 

This  is  an  industrial  age,  according  to  the  Positivists,  just  as 
the  Graeco-Roman  age  was  Military  and  the  Middle  Ages  were 
the  epoch  of  Defensive  War.36  "The  healthy  recasting  of  indus- 
trial life  is  the  work;  religion,  morality,  society,  science,  philosophy 

living  inspired  by  humane  feeling.  As  a  mode  of  religion,  it  means  nothing 
but  the  religion  of  duty — duty  as  revealed  by  science  and  as  idealized  by  the 
reverent    soul."     Harrison.     Autobiography.     II,    269. 

320'Connor,  T.  P.    Fred.  Harrison.    Liv.    Age.  Mch.  3,  1923.    524. 

M0'Connor,  T.  P.  Fred.  Harrison.  Liv.  Age.  Mch.  3,  1923.  522-523. 
See  Taine.  Letter  to  Mme.  H.  Taine.  Life  and  Letters.  Ill,  56.  In  speaking 
of  the  French  Communists,  he  says:  "The  most  notable  Communist  here — 
Mr.  Frederic  Harrison — sums  up  their  principles  by  the  sentence,  'Let  capital 
be  employed  for  the  noblest  objects,'  and  says  that  it  was  such  phrase  that 
armed  the  hundred  thousand  Communists  of  Paris." 

^See  Bridges.  Illustrations  of  Positivism.  466.  "You  cannot  account 
for  the  fact  of  love  or  reverence  by  physics  and  biology;  they  are  the  products 
of  Humanity,  of  the  social  life  of  Man. 

"And  here  we  have  at  once  the  chief  point  of  agreement  between  Comte 
and  Carlyle,  and  also  the  chief  difference.  Carlyle's  point  of  view  was  moral, 
but  not  social.  It  was  individual.  .  .  .  Comte's  point  of  view  is  moral, 
like  Carlyle's;  but  by  virtue  of  being  moral  it  is  social,  for  it  is  governed  by  his 
conception  of  Humanity."  It  is  the  difference  between  the  French  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  spirit. 

^Carlyle  develops  the  idea  of  "industrial  chivalry"  in  Past  and  Present, 
written  in  the  first  seven  weeks  of  1843;  Comte  develops  it  in  the  Positive 
Polity,  published  some  years  later. 

36Harrison.  On  Society.    184. 

In] 


government  exist  as  institutions,  not  for  their  own  sake  but  simply 
to  bring  about  a  healthy,  wise,  right  condition  of  active  industry. 
We  learn  in  order  to  foresee,  and  both  in  order  to  provide."3 
"Thus  everywhere  in  Positivism  action,  work,  product  of  some 
kind,  is  the  end  of  the  whole  synthesis  or  scheme  of  Humanity."3 

Both  Carlyle  and  Harrison  (explaining  Comte)  agree  that 
the  worker  can  not  be  adequately  rewarded  for  his  services. 
-No'"  exclaims  Harrison.  "All  true  labour  is  or  ought  to  be 
gratuitous.  It  is  done  only  with  the  help  of  the  past  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  future.  It  is  the  service  of  society  which  society  should 
honour,  and  wages  paid  are  but  the  bare  means  of  enabling  the 
worker  to  do  his  service— often  the  very  scanty  and  inadequate 
means  of  doing  it."  This  is  a  thought  which  Harrison  labels  as 
coming  from  Comte.39  . 

Harrison's  program  for  labor  reform  included  the  following 

T  Higher  education  for  all.  "Remember  that  in  Positivism, 
Education  practically  takes  the  place  of  Religion  in  theology- 
is  religion  in  fact."40 

2.  Shorter  hours— eight  hours,  ultimately  seven. 

3.  Women    set  free  from  industrial  duties  for  those  of   the 
home  and  for  the  education  of  the  young.42 

4.  Wages:  part  fixed,  part  variable  with  the  profits  of  the 

industry.43 

5    The  workmen  to  own  their  own  homes. 

6.  Free  education,  air,  water,  recreation,  art,  public  amuse- 
ments.42 

"Harrison.  On  Society.  188-189.  See  Carlyle  Sartor  Resartus.  Chap- 
ter on  Helotage,  i7o-i73,  and  Past  and  Present,  Chapter  on  Labor,  233r^ 
and  Chapter  on  Reward,  239-248. 

**Ibid,    188.  ,     c 

"Ibid.  265-266.  See  Carlyle,  Past  and  Present:  "The  wages  of  every 
noble  Work  do  yet  lie  in  Heaven  or  else  Nowhere."  (P.  242  .  Money  for 
my  little  piece  of  work  'to  the  extent  that  will  allow  me  to  keep  working; 
yes,  this-unless  yon  mean  that  I  shall  go  my  ways  before  the  work  is  all  taken 
out' of  me:  but  as  to 'wages' "    (p-  *43)- 

"Harrison.    On  Soeiety.    .70.    Cf.  Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus    .72.      Tha 
there  should  one  Man  die  ignorant  who  had  capacity  for  Knowledge,  th.s  I 
call  a  tragedy." 

"Ibid.    171- 

**Ibid.    I73-J74- 


j.  This  reform  to  be  brought  about  by  enlightened  capital- 
ists,43 under  a  system  of  "industrial  chivalry."  "Just  as  in  old 
time,  the  great  swords  and  heroes  of  the  mediaeval  world  inter- 
vened to  protect  the  weak  and  to  see  justice  done,  so  in  the  new 
industrial  world  it  will  be  the  part  of  men,  without  public  func- 
tions, possessed  of  great  capital,  to  intervene  to  assist  worker  at 
critical  times,  to  maintain  them  in  a  just  strike  to  meet  excep- 
tional distress,  to  prevent  local  acts  of  oppression  and  to  supply 
public  services  in  a  crisis."  These  knights  of  industry  are  to 
supply  amusements,  libraries,  and  other  public  improvements  as 
well.44 

But  work  is  regarded  by  the  Positivists  in  its  relation  to 
society,  while  Carlyle's  main  concern  seems  to  be  the  moral  wel- 
fare of  the  individual  worker.  Comte  says,  just  before  beginning 
a  discussion  of  Labour:  "The  chief  problem  of  human  life  was  thus 

shown   to   be   the   subordination   of  Egoism   to  Altruism 

The  whole  of  Social  Science  consists  therefore  in  duly  working 
out  this  problem;  the  essential  principle  being,  the  reaction  of 
collective  over  individual  life."45  Accordingly,  any  one  who 
serves  Humanity,  even  in  the  meanest  capacity,  is  blessed,  and  a 
part  of  this  service  is  any  form  of  labor.  "The  men  who  are 
making  a  railway,"  says  Harrison,  "a  ship,  a  house,  are  just  as 
truly  labouring  for  country,  for  the  public,  building  on  the  past — 
laying  up  a  store  for  the  future.  Nay,  this  is  true  of  the  man  who 
is  digging  coal,  or  sowing  corn,  or  driving  an  engine.  Civilized 
life  could  not  go  on  without  their  labour.  Their  labour  would  be 
impossible  without  all  that  had  been  done  in  the  past — machines, 
inventions,  organization,  prepared  ground,  appliances,  etc.  And 
their  labour  will  be  shamefully  wasted  unless  it  leaves  much 
prepared  for  the  future.  All  that  we  have  to  do  is  to  make  this  fami- 
liar, to  teach  it  as  the  foundation  of  common  knowledge,  to  make 
it  a  part  of  our  religion — in  order  to  rise  to  the  social  recognition 
of  the  dignity  of  labour."46 

Carlyle,  on  the  other  hand,  was  more  concerned  with  a  cer- 
tain almost  mystical  effect  which  labor  has  on  the  individual. 
It  clarifies  the  soul  of  poisonous  chaos  and  prepares  it  for  the 

"Harrison.    On  Society.    172-173. 
"Ibid.    176-177. 

"Comte.    Positive  Polity.    II,  122. 
"Harrison.    On  Society.    262-264. 


13 


divine  light  of  God.47  This  is  an  individualism  and  a  mysticism 
which  the  French,  as  a  race,  dislike,48  and  to  which  they  oppose 
the  reasoned  order  and  clearness  of  a  Voltaire.49 

47"Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work;  let  him  ask  no  other  blessedness. 
He  has  a  work,  a  life-purpose;  he  has  found  it,  and  will  follow  it!  How,  as  a 
free-flowing  channel,  dug  and  torn  by  noble  force  through  the  sour  mud- 
swamp  of  one's  existence,  like  an  ever-deepening  river  there,  it  runs  and 
flows;  .  .  .  draining  off  the  sour  festering  water,  gradually  from  the  root 
of  the  remotest  grass-blade;  making,  instead  of  pestilential  swamp,  a  green 
fruitful  meadow  with  its  clear-flowing  stream.  How  blessed  for  the  meadow 
itself,  let  the  stream  and  its  value  be  great  or  small!  Labor  is  Life:  from  the 
inmost  heart  of  the  Worker  rises  his  god-given  Force,  the  sacred  celestial 
Life-essence  breathed  into  him  by  Almighty  God;  from  his  inmost  heart 
awakens  him  to  all  nobleness."    {Past  and  Present.    234-235). 

48See  Brownell,  W.  C.   French  Traits.    120. 

"The  criticism  of  Taine,  the  French  Positivist,  on  Carlyle,  the  English 
mystic,  is  instructive.  His  scale  of  degrees  between  the  positivist  and  the 
mystic  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  distance  between  them  and  the  way  in  which 
they  are  related  to  each  other.  "There  is  a  fixed  rule  for  transposing — that  is, 
for  converting  into  one  another  the  ideas  of  a  positivist,  a  pantheist,  a  spiritual- 
ist, a  mystic,  a  poet,  a  head  given  to  images,  and  a  head  given  to  formulas. 
We  may  mark  all  the  steps  which  lead  simple  philosophical  conception  to  its 
extreme  and  violent  state.  Take  the  world  as  science  shows  it;  it  is  a  regular 
group  or  series  which  has  a  law;  according  to  science,  it  is  nothing  more. 
As  from  the  law  we  deduce  the  series,  we  may  say  that  the  law  engenders  it, 
and  consider  this  law  as  a  force.  If  we  are  an  artist,  we  will  seize  in  the  aggre- 
gate the  force,  the  series  of  effects,  and  the  fine  regular  manner  in  which  force 
produces  the  series.  To  my  mind,  this  sympathetic  representation  is  of  all  the 
most  exact  and  complete:  knowledge  is  limited,  as  long  as  it  does  not  arrive 
at  this,  and  it  is  complete  when  it  has  arrived  there.  But  beyond,  there  com- 
mence the  phantoms  which  the  mind  creates,  and  by  which  it  dupes  itself. 
If  we  have  a  little  imagination,  we  will  make  of  this  force  a  distinct  existence, 
situated  beyond  the  reach  of  experience,  spiritual,  the  principle  and  the  sub- 
stance of  concrete  things.  That  is  a  metaphysical  existence.  Let  us  add  one 
degree  to  our  imagination  and  enthusiasm,  and  we  will  say  that  this  spirit, 
situated  beyond  time  and  space,  is  manifested  through  these,  that  it  sub- 
sists and  animates  these,  that  we  have  in  it  motion,  existence,  and  life.  When 
carried  to  the  limits  of  vision  and  ecstacy,  we  will  declare  that  this  principle 
is  the  only  reality,  that  the  rest  is  but  appearance:  thenceforth  we  are  de- 
prived of  all  the  means  of  defining  it;  we  can  affirm  nothing  of  it,  but  that  it 
is  the  source  of  things,  and  that  nothing  can  be  affirmed  of  it;  we  consider  it 
as  a  grand  'unfathomable  abyss;'  we  seek,  in  order  to  come  at  it,  a  path  other 
than  that  of  clear  ideas;  we  extol  sentiment,  exaltation.  If  we  have  a  gloomy 
temperament,  we  seek  it,  like  the  sectarians,  painfully,  amongst  prostrations 
and  agonies.  By  this  scale  of  transformations,  the  general  idea  becomes  poeti- 
cal, then  a  philosophical,  then  a  mystical  existence;  and  German  metaphysics, 
concentrated  and  heated,  is  changed  into  English  Puritanism."  (Taine.  Hist, 
of  Eng.  Lit.    664-665.) 

[14] 


Frederic  Harrison,  a  closer  follower  of  Comte,  on  the  whole, 
than  Mill,  differed  from  the  latter  on  the  questions  of  individual- 
ism and  feminism.  The  importance  of  the  individual  he  thought 
Mill  exaggerated,50  and  his  view  of  the  position  of  women  was  much 
more  in  accordance  with  that  of  Comte.  He  agrees  with  the 
Frenchman  that  women  should  be  educated  and  relieved  from  ex- 
cessive burdens,  but  should  abstain  from  politics  and  trade  in 
order  to  become  the  idealizing  force  in  the  home.51  "The  true 
ideal  of  women's  work  and  life  rests  on  three  leading  axioms: 

"i.  That  civilization  tends  to  differentiate  not  to  identify 
the  lives  of  men  and  women. 

"2.  That  the  power  of  women  is  moral  not  material  force. 

"3.  That  the  material  work  of  the  world  must  fall  on  men."52 

Thus  his  opposition  to  the  participation  of  women  in  poli- 
tics "turns  upon  the  fundamental  and  indelible  distinction  between 
Material  and  Moral  power — between  practical  Control  and 
spiritual  Influence — between  Force  and  Persuasion."53  This  is 
entirely  consistent  with  the  Positivist  insistence  on  the  separation 
of  the  temporal  from  the  spiritual  powers  in  the  state. 

The  marriage  bond  was  considered  as  indissoluble  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Newton  Hall  group  as  it  had  been  by  Comte  himself. 
"The  task  of  Positivism  is  to  restore  the  institution  of  Marriage," 
writes   Harrison,    "which   even    Catholic    Christianity   does   not 

Among  English  writers,  the  Frenchman  prefers  Macaulay  to  Carlyle: 
"There  is  perhaps  less  genius  in  Macaulay  than  in  Carlyle;  but  when  we  have 
fed  for  some  time  on  this  exaggerated  and  demoniacal  style,  this  marvellous 
and  sickly  philosophy,  this  contorted  and  prophetic  history,  these  sinister  and 
furious  politics,  we  gladly  return  to  the  continuous  eloquence,  to  the  vigorous 
reasoning,  to  the  moderate  prognostications,  to  the  demonstrated  theories, 
of  the  generous  and  solid  mind  which  Europe  has  just  lost,  who  brought 
honor  to  England,  and  whose  place  none  can  fill."  (Taine,  History  of  Eng. 
Lit.   674.) 

49Carlyle,  according  to  Taine,  had  no  taste  for  French  literature.  "The 
exact  order,  the  fine  proportions,  the  perpetual  regard  for  the  agreeable  and 
proper,  the  harmonious  structure  of  clear  and  consecutive  ideas,  the  delicate 
picture  of  society,  the  perfection  of  style — nothing  which  moves  us,  has  at- 
traction for  him.  His  mode  of  comprehending  life  is  too  far  removed  from  ours. 
In  vain  he  tries  to  understand  Voltaire,  all  he  can  do  is  to  slander  him." 
(Taine.   Hist,  of  Eng.   Lit.  668.) 

50Harrison.    Tennyson,  Ruskin,  and  Mill.    278. 

"Harrison.     Essay  on    The  Future  of  Woman,  in  Realities  and  Ideals. 

62Harrison.    Realities  and  Ideals.    82. 

™Ibid.    126. 


15 


adequately  defend.  Its  essential  conditions  are — the  exclusive 
and  indissoluble  form  of  Marriage,  and  the  setting  free  the  wife 
to  be  the  moral  Head  of  the  Home."54 

It  will  be  remembered  that  an  important  part  of  the  ritual  of 
the  Positivist  church  was  the  commemoration  of  the  great  dead, 
and  that  Harrison  himself  issued  a  New  Calendar  of  Great  Men. 
Instantly  we  are  reminded  of  Carlyle's  hero-worship.  But  the 
distinction  is  evident,  and  again  it  turns  upon  the  opposition  of  the 
mystical  and  individualistic  to  the  empirical  and  social.  Carlyle 
is  thinking  of  the  heroes,  Comte  of  the  Humanity  which  they 
serve;55  to  Carlyle  they  are  the  recipients  of  Divine  Grace,  to  Comte 
observers  of  the  laws  of  science,  physical  and  human,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  using  them  for  human  profit.  Harrison,  himself,  makes  the 
distinction: 

"Both  seem  to  aim  at  the  same  thing — but  in  very  different 
modes.  Hero-worship,  as  expounded  by  Carlyle,  is  constantly 
tending  to  the  individual  glorification  of  a  few — for  the  sake  of 
the  few,  to  the  material  profit  perhaps  of  the  many,  but  to  their 
moral  degradation,  it  may  be,  unless  in  so  far  as  they  humbly  ac- 
cept and  honour  their  Saviour.  Nay,  at  last  the  latter-day  preacher 
seems  to  regard  men  almost  as  Napoleon  regarded  them,  as  the 
food  of  his  cannon,  as  the  pedestal  whereon  the  royal  one  could 
be  set  up  to  eternal  glory.  Panels  nascitur  humanum  genus — seems 
to  be  the  motto  of  such  hero-worship  and  the  justification  of  their 
careers. 

"There  is  no  saying  of  antiquity  for  which  Comte  has  ex- 
pressed a  greater  loathing.  It  sums  up  the  worst  form  of  slavery, 
oligarchy,  and  despotism,  political  and  social.  To  Comte,  Human- 
ity means  the  great  mass  of  men.  The  greater  men  are  but  ser- 
vants of  their  fellow-men,  organs  of  Humanity,  morally  and  in- 
tellectually its  creatures,  organically  and  historically,  its  teachers 
and  guides."56 

John  Morley  criticizes  Carlyle  for  the  heroes  he  worships 
because  of  their  greatness  built  on  "violence,  force,  and  mere  iron 
will,"  and  he  cites,  as  examples,  Cromwell,  Mirabeau,  Frederick, 
and  Napoleon.57  As  opposed  to  this,  we  find  Harrison  saying  of 
Comte:    "Throughout  his  entire  works  there  is  no  glorification  of 

^Harrison.    Realities  and  Ideals.    149. 

85See  Mehlis.    Die  Geschichtsphilosophie  Auguste  Comtes.    III. 
B6Harrison.    The  Positive  Evolution  of  Religion.    59-60. 
67Morley.    Stud,  in  Lit.    179-180. 

[16] 


power,  none  of  force,  of  success,  of  superiority  to  common  men, 
simply  as  such.  The  honour  is  given  to  services  conferred  on  fellow- 
men,  not  to  genius  however  transcendent,  or  exploits  however 
marvelous The  patient  men  of  exact  science,  the  inven- 
tors, the  toilers  at  the  lowest  states  of  the  human  work-shop  are 
all  duly  recognized."58  And  yet,  in  The  New  Calendar  of  Great 
Men,  Frederick  the  Great  is  given  place:  "Comte  extols  Frederick 
as  a  practical  genius,  who,  in  political  capacity  came  nearest  to 
Caesar  and  Charlemagne;  a  dictator  who  furnishes  the  best  model 
of  modern  statesmanship;  who,  in  accordance  with  the  ideal  of 
Hobbes,  reconciled  power  and  liberty  {Pos.  Pol.  Ill,  498).  Fred- 
erick recognized  the  difference  between  the  spiritual  and  temporal 
powers  as  few  politicians,  radical  or  reactionary,  do  now.  He 
kept  to  his  own  sphere.  With  no  belief  in  God  or  a  future  life,  he  is 
a  precious  and  shining  example  of  what  purely  human  motives  can 
effect,  when  they  are  not  weighted  and  warped  by  the  rival  claims 
of  an  imaginary  object  of  love  and  adoration."59 

Naturally  there  was  a  difference  in  the  attitude  toward  the 
capacities  of  the  general  mass  of  humanity  taken  by  Carlyle 
and  by  the  Positivists.  "To  the  religion  of  Humanity,  individual 
men  and  women,  however  great  and  good,  are  those  who  serve, 
whom  Humanity  has  formed,  and  whom  it  enables  to  do  great  or 
good  work.  To  Carlyle,  Humanity  is  but  the  obscure  host  whom 
favoured  individuals  deign  to  govern  and  to  instruct,"  says 
Harrison,60  who  sums  up  the  distinctions  between  the  English  and 
the  French  thinker  so  concisely  that  they  may  easily  be  put  in 
tabular  form:61 

Comte  Carlyle 

1.  System  based  on  science.  Regards  science   as   dry   and 

barren. 

2.  Humanity  an  object  of  Humanity  an  obscure  host 

worship.  governed  by  individuals. 

68Harrison.   Op.  cit.    60. 

59Beesly,  E.  S.  Frederick  II.  In  the  New  Calendar  of  Great  Men,  edited 
by  Frederic  Harrison.    544.    Quotation  from  the  Positive  Polity  verified. 

60Harrison.  The  Pos.  Evol.  of  Religion.  55.  See  also  Brownell,  Victorian 
Prose  Masters.  P.  71.  "Man  as  man  meant  nothing  to  him"  (Carlyle).  "The 
dignity  of  human  nature  he  regarded  with  truly  Calvinistic  derision.  The 
'divine'  element  monopolized  him.  He  even  manufactured  at  need  incarna- 
tions of  it.  Hence  his  doctrine  of  heroes,  his  view  of  history  as  the  biography 
of  great  men,  his  exaltation  of  the  exceptional  personality." 

"Harrison.    The  Pos.  Evol.  of  Religion.    55-56. 

[17] 


3.  "Rich  in  heart"  to  govern. 


"Big  in  brain  and  brawn" 

to  govern. 
Religious   basis: 

tive    ideal    of 

Ruler." 


"the   subjec- 
an    Almighty 


4.  Religious  basis:  demon- 
strable knowledge  of  a  pro- 
gressive Humanity,  and  the 
practical  service  of  Human- 
ity, in  ways  expounded  by  a 
trained  body  of  teachers." 

These  are  distinctions  which  it  is  well  to  keep  in  mind  when 
studying  the  Positivist  elements  in  the  poetry  and  fiction  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  for  the  two  types  of  thought,  so  different  in 
fundamentals,  coincide  at  some  points,  or  appear  to  coincide, 
causing  some  difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  influence  of  one  from 
that  of  the  other. 


[18 


VITA 

The  author,  Garreta  Helen  Busey,  was  born  in  Urbana, 
Illinois,  March  I,  1893.  She  attended  the  public  schools  there 
until  her  graduation  from  High  School  in  191 1,  having  spent,  in 
1908,  seven  months  travelling  and  studying  in  Europe.  She  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  from  Wellesley  College  in 
1915. 

In  1920  she  returned  from  two  years'  war  service  in  France 
and  Switzerland  under  the  American  Red  Cross  and  the  League  of 
Red  Cross  Societies,  and,  the  following  February,  entered  the 
Graduate  School  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  where  she  has  con- 
tinued studying  until  the  present  time,  1924,  and  where  she  re- 
ceived, in  June,  1922,  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 


[19 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

146B96R  C001 

THE  REFLECTION  OF  POSITIVISM  IN  ENGLISH 


